Be More Productive While Working From Home

5 Strategies to Implement Now

According to recent data by Global Workplace Analytics non self-employed individuals who work from home has grown 115% since 2005 with over 3.7 million people working from home at least 50% of the time. Job site, Monster.Com reports that working from home can have tremendous benefits including decreased stress, a greater sense of work-life balance, and ultimately be empowering for both the employee and the employer. The pitfalls, however, also include distraction, feeling overwhelmed due to the necessity of self-regulation, and the lack of energy that comes from an environment rife with people and new ideas.

If you work from home, or are considering it, these strategies can help you feel more productive, have a greater infusion of fresh ideas, and also be more empowered.

1. Be Intentional the Night Before

It is imperative that you begin to focus on the most important tasks before you go to bed. I suggest using a simple spiral notebook and not only writing out what you will commit to the next day, but how you will perform the task. I call this being intentional.

Instead of writing a ‘to do’ list, I teach my clients, and students, to write something like this:

• ‘I have three great sales conversations,’ as opposed to, ‘make three sales calls.’

As we sleep, our brains are already figuring out how to make our intentions a reality.

2. Start Your Day With A Power Five

In my book, Organize Your Life, I discuss how five minutes per day can radically change your life. One of the principles is to start the day with five minutes of journaling. This time is used for self-evaluation and reviewing what is most important. Whenever I can, I look at my task list for the day and remove something that is non-essential. After sleeping, meditation, prayer, and reflection, there are often items on my list that truly are not in alignment with my goals and these must go in order to free up time for greater opportunities to flow.

3. Meet With Your Boss on Monday Morning Even If You Are Your Own Boss

Many of my clients are their own boss and even if this is the case, set a specific time to review the core objectives of the week. Furthermore, schedule time mid-week to re-evaluate and establish what the most important tasks are that must be done in order to finish the week with a sense of accomplishment.

4. Use a Timer and Reward Yourself With Your Distractions

The biggest challenge in working from home is that there are a multitude of distractions. If you are self-employed, it is even more arduous because there isn’t anyone monitoring your work. An old-school approach that I employ is to use a timer and commit to focusing on one task for a certain period of time before I can allow myself to do something else such as flip the laundry or do some online shopping.

For example, let’s say that you are in sales and are procrastinating on making calls, tell yourself that you will go on Nordstrom.Com once you have schedule three appointments.

One of the people I mentored was obsessed with Pinterest™ and she found that she was spending more time looking at boards than she was producing results in her business. She decided to use this approach and worked in 90 minute blocks and then rewarded herself with 15 minutes of social media. Her income doubled in three months.

5. Go Old School

Yes, workflow APP’s are amazing however what is at the forefront of our minds is at the forefront of our actions. When your core objectives are hidden within an APP, or even on your laptop, it can be distracting just going to look at your tasks. I recommend that my clients go ‘old school’ and use a traditional whiteboard. Many companies, such as software guru, Infusionsoft™ even have large whiteboard and chalkboard areas for their employees to draw things out.

Inherently, we all have a creative part of our brain. There is something powerful about writing as opposed to typing and drawing out your objectives, with perhaps a few doodles thrown in for good measure, can help you become more productive and be a tremendous catharsis.

Some of you are multi-preneurs – you have more than one business and you work from home. If that is the case then these five strategies can definitely assist you with staying on course. If you are struggling with your productivity, you can contact our office and schedule a one-time coaching call to help you get organized. We specialize in working with solopreneurs and small businesses.

Lastly, the more organized you are, the more productive you will be and that more productive you are, the more ‘stuff’ you get done and ultimately you will free up time to do the things you want to do. Go for it!

Susan Sly is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, certified NLP practitioner, coach, and trauma recovery specialist. Susan specializes in helping people become more productive so they can lead ridiculously fulfilling lives. She is the mother of five and has been working in human potential for over two decades.

Would You Like To Work With Susan?

Susan’s class – OYL Sales Academy begins on September 12th. In this course, Susan will teach you how to become more adept at selling using NLP (neuro linguistic programming) techniques and create more certainty in the selling process. This class is already over 50% sold out. This is the last time, Susan will teach this course live and you will want to participate to benefit from the energizing atmosphere that comes from live coaching, interaction, and accountability. Register today.

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